Learn more about Glasgow’s world class history, museums, contemporary art and legendary music scene plus more on the city’s sporting and conference credentials.

1. Why Glasgow?
Ancestral Tourism
Dr Irene O’Brien, Glasgow Life

2. The Current Market
• Family History explosion
• Diaspora - 50m
• North America, Australasia & UK
• 25% - searching family history
• 850,000 trips, ancestral links
• 213,000 key reason (101m)
• 50% to Glasgow
• UK – 1.77m trips to Glasgow (318m)
• USA - 85,000 trips (39m)
• Australasia - 31,000 trips

3. Why Glasgow
• Coming home
• Personal Journey
• Discovering more
• Where to go and how to go about it
‘Walking in footsteps of my ancestors is extremely
important to me. Even if I cannot identify exactly where
they lived and worked, there is a strong feeling of
shared memory that I experience in certain places. It is
a feeling of roots if that makes sense.’

4. Cradle to Grave
• One - stop shop
• Documenting all human activity
• Individual and collective histories
• Stories and identities of people here
and millions across the world
‘I think that once you have identified the
usual…you naturally start to wonder about
their lives and what they did, if they were
happy or not’

5. Ancestral Visits
• Ancestral tourism can generate business
• ¾ North American Family History tourists- over 8 nights
• Visit at down-times, often empty-nesters with good levels of disposable income
• Link to Family History facilities - Family History at the Mitchell Library
• What else on offer - museums, events etc.
• They want everything the City has to offer

6. Why Glasgow?
Glasgow Museums
Duncan Dornan, Glasgow Life

7. The Largest Museum Service outside London

8. A Heritage of Over 150 years

9. 9 Museums Across the City

10. Over 1 Million Objects

11. Internationally Important Collections

12. Highest Participation Rate - 3.5m visits a year

13. Engaging with Diverse Audiences

14. Events and Activities

15. Innovative Practice
Access

16. Digital Engagement
Online - On site

17. Corporate Hire

18. International Reputation
European Museum of the Year 2013

19. Why Glasgow?
Contemporary Art
Sarah Munro, Glasgow Life

20. The Grit and the Glamour
Glasgow
Contemporary
Art City

21. Contemporary since 1899
Glasgow : Authentic, Inspiring, Welcoming

22. Authentic
• Year round offer, world class artists
living and working in the city
• Over 1 million visits in 2012/13 to
visual arts in the City
• Over 20 galleries and event spaces

23. Inspiring
“The UK’s best visual arts festival.
Forget Edinburgh, forget Liverpool: this is the one.”
Adrian Searle, The Guardian
Predicted visits - 18 day festival
2016: 215,650
2018: 237,210
• ROI for Glasgow City £1.80m (2014) and predicted £1.98m (2016)
• Advertising Value £10.8m (2014) and predicted £11m (2016)

24. Welcoming
The Contemporary Art Package

25. Turner Prize : Oct 2015 – Jan 2016
• Estimated 100,000 - 150,000 visitors

26. Why Glasgow?
Celtic Connections
Jade Hewat, Glasgow Life

27. “No British city defies the drab winter blues with such impressively
Saturnalian vigour as Glasgow, where the streets are pulsating with music
and song for the annual 18-day Celtic Connections festival.“
The Times

28. Connecting Cultures
• Ambitious Programming
• Unique Collaborative Events
• World exclusive Performances
• Exploring Connections
• Bringing Audiences and Musicians
Together

29. 2014 Highlights
• Scotland’s new landmark arena, The SSE Hydro
• Del Amitri
Friday 24th January
• Homecoming International Burns Night
Saturday 25th January

30. "...a fantastic affirmation of the power of indigenous culture to boost the local
economy and to reinvigorate the tourist industry.”
fRoots

31. Showcase Scotland
• Proven event and its
successes are both
evident and quantifiable
• Showcase opens the door
of opportunity for many
artists and has an
economic return of
approximately £2million to
Scotland
We had great feedback from our governmental partners, as well as
artists and managers, and we really appreciate the work you did to
strengthen the links between Québec and Scotland. Spotlight
Québec was a great achievement for us, especially the visit from
the Québec Minister of Culture.”
Heidi Fleming, folquebec.com

32. Audience Demographics
• 110,176 attendances
• Average frequency: 4.67 events
• 43.3% of visitors stay overnight
• Attendances from every continent of the world
• 18.4% overseas

33. Benefits to the City
• Visitors rated the ‘overall quality’ of the festival
very highly (99% - Good or Very Good), with
the ‘events’, ‘staff’ and ‘venues’, rating highest.
• When ‘advance impact’ multipliers are applied,
Celtic Connections generated £10.7million of
new output to Glasgow
Source Culture Republic Economic Impact Study

34. Celtic Connections Big Top 2012
• 1,645 attendances
• Visitors travelled from as far
afield as Australia, France,
Ireland, Israel and the USA.

35. Ryder Cup 2012
• Celtic Connections showcased at various
events for the public, media and VIP
Europe throughout the Ryder Cup in
downtown Chicago and at the 18th Hole
• Over 700 million viewers

36. “From the off Celtic Connections stood out from the crowd. It wasn’t copying
anything from elsewhere…But it has tapped into distinctly Scottish: a love and
respect for tradition, a strong sense of community, an instinctive tendency towards
musical collaboration, a desire to sing and dance late into the night.
Its message was not a needy “we can do this as well as you” but a self-assured “this
is who we are, you’re welcome to join us.”
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
THURSDAY 15TH JANUARY – SUNDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 2015

37. Why Glasgow?
Glasgow Sport
Lynne McPhee, Glasgow Life

38. Glasgow Sport - 1995 to 2007
• UK City of Sport 1996
• European Capital of Sport 2003
• Launch of CWG 2014 bid – 2004
• UEFA Cup Final 2007
• World Team Badminton Championships 2007
• Commonwealth Games Bid won 9 Nov 2007

39. World Cup Gymnastics
• Sold out 2011-2013 - 5,500 capacity
• 33% of spectators to the event are from out with Scotland
• Broadcast on BBC TV and online, plus global highlights distribution package

40. British Athletics International
• Sell out 5,500 capacity event in
2013 and 2014
• Live terrestrial TV coverage on BBC
and worldwide TV highlights
coverage
• First IAAF Diamond League

41. British Cycling Road Race Championships
• June 2013
• Over 35,000 spectators from across the UK and
internationally
• 84% of spectators surveyed were in Glasgow
specifically to attend the event
• Research indicated an economic impact to
Glasgow of over £360,000 from the event
• Highlights broadcast on ITV2

42. UCI Junior Track World Championships
• Over 9,000 spectators attended the event, 250
participating riders plus team support/coaches
• 33 countries participated
• Live streaming of the event - 120,000 users from
103 different countries
• 4.5m page impressions on social media
• Broadcast on Eurosport and Sky Sports (UK)

43. World Youth Netball
• 10 days of competition
• Over 5,000 tickets sold
• 26% of ticket sales - overseas (non-UK)
• Live streaming - 35,000 users from 77 countries
globally
• Attracted 240 players, 105 coaches from the 20
competing nations

44. Duel in the Pool
• Equivalent of the Ryder Cup
• Major international swimming names and Scottish hero Michael Jamieson
• Sell out sessions and broadcast live with highlights packages on Sky Sports (UK)
and NBC (USA) to a total audience of 900,000 (799,000 USA, rest UK)

45. • 11,500 tickets sold to date from 40,000
available
• 10% of tickets sales overseas (non-UK)
from 22 different countries including USA,
Australia, Russia, Japan

46. Still to come….
• IPC World Swimming Championships 2015
• European Judo Championships 2015
• Bidding for:-
• World Team Badminton Championships 20
• European Indoor Athletics 2019

47. Sports Business Ultimate Sports City Rankings
2012 2014

48. Economic / International Impact of Sport
• GVA - £295m : Glasgow Economy (exc Gambling/Retail
• Sport employs 10,000 people in Glasgow
• 9th Ultimate Sports Cities
• Between August 2011 - March 2013, SMEF secured a
range of sport and cultural events with an estimated
economic impact of around £56.7 million

49. Why Glasgow for Sport?
• Sporting infrastructure
• Skilled workforce
• Easy to get here
• Easy to get around
• Packed venues
• Friendly people
• Safe environment
• A top 10 sporting city

50. The SECC Glasgow Story
Sean Murray,
SECC & The SSE Hydro

52. During Glasgow 2014 we are
the proud host venue for
• GYMNASTICS
• BOXING
• JUDO
• NETBALL
• WRESTLING
• WEIGHTLIFTING AND POWERLIFTING
• INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST CENTRE
• MAIN PRESS CENTRE

53. Why we exist?
• Business reason – positive economic impact for Glasgow and Scotland
• Working to be the host venue for:
• Conferences
• Exhibitions
• Live Music/Entertainment
• Theatre

54. Venue History
• Main SECC building opened in 1985
• Clyde Auditorium (or Armadillo) opened in 1998
• The SSE Hydro opened in 2013

55. Conferences – Main SECC
and Clyde Auditorium
• Purpose built plenary auditorium for
3,000 delegates
• Flexible, scalable space
• Walkable campus
• Hotels onsite and great connectivity.

57. What is next?
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014
• MTV European Music Awards 2014
• Ryder Cup Gala Concert
• Kylie – Gaga – The Who – Paulo – Billy Connolly – Still Game Live!
2015
• World Gymnastics Championships
• European Association of International Education Conference
Beyond
• 2017 International Soc for Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research
• 2018 World Haemophilia Congress
• 2020 World Biomaterials Congress

58. For more information or contacts, please visit
www.glasgowlife.org.uk

59. www.glasgowtourismstrategy.com
For more insights and resources, please visit
www.glasgowtourismstrategy.com